Positive move on I-95’s ‘coffin corridor’

It promises to be ugly, but it should save lives.

The S.C. Department of Transportation has at long last released a plan to address the “coffin corridor” of Interstate 95 in Jasper County. It is a deadly stretch of highway that should have been addressed years ago.

The project will be ugly because 99 acres of trees could be razed on the sides and medians of a 33-mile stretch of interstate. It could involve 46 acres of wetlands. And it is to include lane closures at times during a job that could last 12 to 18 months.

We applaud those who attended a public hearing on the plan last week in Ridgeland, and welcome the scrutiny by the Coastal Conservation League, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and any others interested in environmental protection.

But, ugly or not, the cold truth remains. South Carolina owes it to the traveling public to fix this problem.

When our staff searched for the bigger picture behind the steady stream of horrid wrecks, this is what we found:

▪  More motorists are dying in tree-related wrecks along this stretch than anywhere else along I-95 in South Carolina.

▪  Roughly 36 percent of all the I-95 tree-related fatalities statewide — 25 deaths from 2010 to 2015 — occurred in Jasper County.

The trees are obviously a problem. They are too close to the road.

People like to point out that a tree has never jumped out into the road to crash into a vehicle. They like to say it’s the drivers’ fault.

But that doesn’t take into account the fact that there is a major problem on this one particular stretch of highway. The numbers prove it. Drivers who leave the roadway, for whatever reason, don’t have the chance they deserve to survive. That’s the problem.

It is a unique problem, it is an obvious problem, and it can no longer be ignored.

DOT’s movement toward a solution is welcome. Saving lives is the important thing.

This story was originally published February 13, 2017 at 9:17 AM with the headline "Positive move on I-95’s ‘coffin corridor’."